News & Reports
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Qatar
Job mobility in Qatar is still a mirage despite reforms; domestic workers most affected
A year after Qatar rolled out significant labour reforms, changing jobs remains a difficult process — and an expensive one, with employers demanding huge kickbacks from workers. The messaging on paper contradicts what workers are told on-site at the labour ministry. Women migrants, particularly domestic workers, are the worst affected by these ambiguities.
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Detention & Deportation
“We cried and begged”
UAE tramples on the hopes, dignity, and rights of African migrant workers
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UAE
UAE turns a blind eye to rampant abuse of its visit visa; employer-pays model only on paper
With Covid-19-related restrictions on formal recruitment, more and more Nepali migrant workers are going to the UAE on visit visas. Though technically legal under UAE law, Nepal’s government bans workers from travelling on visit visas for the purposes of employment. These migrants often end up paying extortionately high fees for non-existent jobs, with none of the legal protections formally recruited workers are entitled to.
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Kuwait
Transportation Workers in Kuwait: At the wheel, thrown under the bus
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Bahrain
Protesting migrant workers in Bahrain’s O&G sector face abuse and threats
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Detention & Deportation
Over 80,000 undocumented migrants in Saudi arrested in recent raids
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Health and Safety
Migrant workers suffer most in Kuwait’s extreme heat
In Brief
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On November 4, the Kuwait Public Authority for Manpower’s (PAM) Board of Directors approved the cancellation of decision No. 520 of 2020 which had blocked migrants aged 60+ who hold less than a university degree from obtaining residency permits.
According to the new regulations, the above-mentioned residents can renew their permits for KD500 (1,656 USD) per year, in addition to the estimated cost of private health insurance (between KD500 and KD700 annually.)
Read more -
A group of UN special rapporteurs have drawn attention to the trafficking of Vietnamese women to Saudi Arabia, who are then subjected to sexual abuse and torture. Though the statement is specific to the Vietnam-Saudi corridor, trafficking of women and extreme abuse of women in domestic work is pervasive across the region. Except for the scant protections of a domestic workers law in four of the GCC states, there are no effective measures to protect women who are employed in households and living in isolation.
Read more -
Kuwait’s budget crunch, liquidity crises, and labour force nationalisation schemes have resulted in a large-scale termination of foreign workers, and a devastating impact on non-Kuwaiti government employees. According to various media reports, the Kuwaiti government is several months overdue in paying end-of-service benefits to terminated and resigned migrant workers.
Read more
In Brief
-
On November 4, the Kuwait Public Authority for Manpower’s (PAM) Board of Directors approved the cancellation of decision No. 520 of 2020 which had blocked migrants aged 60+ who hold less than a university degree from obtaining residency permits.
According to the new regulations, the above-mentioned residents can renew their permits for KD500 (1,656 USD) per year, in addition to the estimated cost of private health insurance (between KD500 and KD700 annually.)
Read more -
A group of UN special rapporteurs have drawn attention to the trafficking of Vietnamese women to Saudi Arabia, who are then subjected to sexual abuse and torture. Though the statement is specific to the Vietnam-Saudi corridor, trafficking of women and extreme abuse of women in domestic work is pervasive across the region. Except for the scant protections of a domestic workers law in four of the GCC states, there are no effective measures to protect women who are employed in households and living in isolation.
Read more -
Kuwait’s budget crunch, liquidity crises, and labour force nationalisation schemes have resulted in a large-scale termination of foreign workers, and a devastating impact on non-Kuwaiti government employees. According to various media reports, the Kuwaiti government is several months overdue in paying end-of-service benefits to terminated and resigned migrant workers.
Read more
